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9.26.2014

Weakened and Impoverished, We Entered the Fourth Week of Displacement

Yet, there is nothing promising at all. The Iraqi government has not done anything to regain the Christian towns back from the IS. Likewise, the Kurdish government, apart from allowing us to enter their province, has not offered any aid, financial or material, leaving us in the streets, and making the church take full responsibility of us all. Thanks to the Church of Iraq in Kurdistan, who opened their halls and centres to provide shelters. Yet, the number of refugees was so large that the Kurdish government had to face the stark reality and open their schools to provide additional shelter for refugees.

We hear a lot about world governments and organizations sending financial aid to Iraq, but the refugee gets the least –we do not know or understand why. People lost almost everything; they cannot even afford to buy milk or formula for their children. What saddens us most is that, only one month ago, these people were the most educated in the country and among those most likely to build a life for themselves and their family, and now they do not have enough money in their pockets to survive the day. Christians became accustomed to investing their money in businesses, shops, fields, buildings…etc, to build their communities. Leaving their towns meant leaving everything they had been working for all their lives. Yet, amidst losing everything, accepting their lost dignity, is the most difficult loss they may experience. continue reading

9.19.2014

The Maronite Servants of
Christ the Light attended Divine Liturgy for the Christians of the Middle East on
Thursday, September 11, 2014, at Our Lady of Lebanon Church, Washington DC.

The Liturgy was celebrated by
His Eminence and Beatitude, Bechara Peter Cardinal Rai, our Maronite Patriarch,
and concelebrating were Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, and
his predecessor, Cardinal Emeritus Theodore McCarrick, and Archbishop Carlo
Maria Vigano, Papal Nuncio to the United States, as well as other Catholic leaders
and faithful.

Cardinal Rai was in Washington
DC for the Conference on “Defending the Middle East Christians”, which was
sponsored by an American NGO from September 9 to September 11. Following the
close of the Conference, Cardinal Rai, along with other Eastern Catholic
Patriarchs were granted an interview with the President of the United States to
discuss the dire situation and persecution of the Christians in the Middle
East.

Cardinal Rai mentioned in his
homily during the Divine Liturgy that he, along with the other Patriarchs, were
able to speak with Mr. Obama for approximately 40 minutes and apprise him of
the awful situation that Christians now find themselves in the Middle East in
the wake of the militancy of ISIS.

In celebrating Divine Liturgy,
the Gospel reading was taken from St. John, “…unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a
grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12: 24).

Cardinal Rai paralleled this
Gospel text with the situation of the Christians in the Middle East, that is,
that out of their great sufferings, united with Christ on His Cross on Great
Friday, there will come a Resurrection Sunday. The sufferings of our fellow
Christians in the Middle East will bring new life, just like the grain of
wheat.

Liturgy was followed by a
reception in the hall hosted by Chorbishop, Dominic Ashkar, Pastor of Our Lady
of Lebanon, Washington DC.

9.18.2014

On the Feast of the Exaltation
of Our Lord’s Holy Cross, Sunday, September 14, the Maronite Servants of Christ
the Light hosted its monthly Ramsho and Supper at the Mother of Light Convent
for priests and religious.

In attendance
for our Ramsho and Supper were several priests from the Congregation of the
Holy Cross, and several religious sisters from the Congregation of the
Dominican Sisters of the Presentation. Also in attendance were Chorbishop
Joseph Kaddo, Pastor of St. Anthony of the Desert Maronite Church, Fall River,
Fr. Jack Morrison, Pastor of Our Lady of Purgatory Maronite Church, New
Bedford, and devoted parishioner, Therese Abouzeid.

9.12.2014

On Saturday, September 6,
2014, the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light witnessed the arrival and
veneration of a relic of St. Anthony of Padua at our Maronite Parish of St.
Anthony in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Prior to our journey to
Springfield, the nature of the relic was unknown to us, although many people
know that the famous relic of St. Anthony of Padua is in fact his incorrupt
tongue. St. Anthony of Padua was a great preacher in his time (13th
Century). We later learned that day, as we ourselves approached to venerate the
relic, that the relic was in fact two pieces of the saint’s incorrupt cartilage of his larynx, which controlled the
vibration of his vocal chords. These are the parts of the body used in
speech and was discovered in recent times in 1981.

The relic of the great saint
had come all the way from its native shrine in Padua, Italy from the Basilica
di Sant’Antonio, and was welcomed in the parish by a great number of pilgrims. We,
and many other pilgrims, accompanied the relic in procession from the middle of
Island Pond Road to the altar of the Church. In the procession, the relic was
held in the stole of His Excellency, Bishop Gregory Mansour, accompanied by His
Excellency, Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, and Fr.
George Zina, Pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Church.

After the relic had arrived in
the Church, Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Bishop Gregory Mansour, followed
by the Litany of St. Anthony. During the day’s prayers and devotions, we
carried your petitions to the feet of St. Anthony of Padua. The relic will
remain in the Church at Springfield for 9 consecutive days from
September 6th through the 14th, before returning to its
resting place and shrine in Italy. During these nine days the Maronites
of Springfield, who dedicated their church and parish to St. Anthony, will
conduct a very special novena in thanksgiving to him for two separate miracles
that represent over a hundred years of his patronage and protection.

All are welcome
to join the parish in their novena to St. Anthony of Padua, which is available
on the EWTN website.

9.04.2014

On Saturday August
30th we happily attended the first profession of two Pauline Sisters, Sr.
Theresa and Sr. Cheryl at their Provincial house in Boston. The theme of their
first Profession of vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience was: "For me
to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). In participating in the beautiful
profession Liturgy and watching the sisters take their vows I was taken back to
the joyful time in which I took my vows in December of 2013. It is by God’s grace
that we freely respond to his Divine invitation of love and moreover deepen our
baptismal promises through the total offering of our lives in the love and
worship of God.

When the sisters
professed their vows before the altar to their superior I recalled the Profession
I made nearly two years ago:

First Vows 2013

I glorify and praise
you, O Christ, your Father, and your living Holy Spirit for calling me to a
vocation of greater perfection, and I joyfully lay down my life in your service
and that of your Church in this Congregation. In the presence of Almighty God
and before you, Mother Marla Marie, our superior, I Sister Therese Maria,
humbly vow for one year to live the Gospel counsels of obedience, chastity, and
poverty according to the Typicon of the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light.
Relying on the help of Mary, the Mother of God, our patron Saint Maron, and the
support of this community, I promise with God's grace to observe my vows
faithfully.

The vows of obedience,
chastity and poverty which we take essentially capture our being totally given
over to the praise and glory of our loving Father. A beautiful witness so
needed in our world today. Jesus is the true joy and light of our lives. Have
you considered giving your life in service to God and his people? As John Paul
II has taught us, it is in giving of ourselves in love and service to others
that we truly find ourselves and experiences the deepest fulfillment.

Photos

With the postulant director, two postulants and their family and friends.

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May we be worthy to praise, glorify, and honor the One who renewed the world, and traced a new path of life for his creatures; Christ, the One who is light for all and who covered the universe with a new light by his glorious resurrection; the wondrous One who performed a new wonder on this day, by entering the Upper Room with his apostles, and immersing their hearts in a new happiness. To Christ, the good One, are due glory and honor, on this day and all the days of our lives, now and for ever. Amen

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""Love is the light -- and in the end, the only light-- that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world..."